Mousa wants more after south coast strike

Mousa Dembele hopes his goal at Bournemouth will be the first of many for him this season.

The Belgian international, outstanding in holding midfield last week against Liverpool, lined up in a more attacking role behind striker Harry Kane at the Vitality Stadium.

After the latter cancelled out Matt Ritchie’s early opener from the penalty spot, Mousa stayed alert to latch onto the ball when Danny Rose’s shot was blocked and coolly stepped clear of the Cherries’ defence before sliding us into a 2-1 lead.

It was the 28-year-old’s first goal since February but after starting the season in fine form – perforated by a few weeks on the sidelines with a foot injury – he says he’s determined to ensure it won’t be another eight months before he’s on the scoresheet again.

“I was surprised that it fell for me, but I kept calm and just picked my spot in the corner,” said Mousa as he reflected on his effort at Bournemouth.

“I want to add more goals to my game and in that position, the number 10 role, you get in more situations.

“I want to create more chances to score. It depends what position I play in, but in the number 10 role I want to score more goals.”

Erik Lamela joined Mousa on the scoresheet later in the first half, before Harry completed his hat-trick after the break to round off a fine afternoon’s work.

Mousa felt the attitude and application of the players was spot-on, following the disappointment of conceding to the Cherries inside 60 seconds on the south coast.

“It was a bit of bad luck to go 1-0 down but after that we showed our attitude and it was a good performance from us,” he added.

“These are important games to maintain your focus and make sure you win. It’s easy to be motivated against the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal but in these scenarios we need to make sure we come in with the right attitude and that’s what we did today.

“Against recently promoted teams away from home it can be very difficult, but we have a lot of quality, we did very well today and we won comfortably.”